Tearing the swing arm and linkage apart to grease the bearings and what do I find? The bearing connected to the lower end of the shock was seized up.



The ends of the bearings are worn down to little nipples and the sleeve is rusted and pitted, significantly wore.





The other bearings are still in good shape with ample grease.

New bearing, sleeve, and seals are on order.

 

Are you going to do the grease fitting mod?

 

Install a grease zerk? No, I'm not that motivated. And to do it right would take at least three zerks. I'm more leery of messing up installing zerks and would rather just tear it down every year or two and inspect everything.

If my memory is correct, when I tore this all apart a couple years ago, I couldn't get the sleeve on this one to slide out but it still spun okay so it didn't get any grease. A lot of this was new to me and I didn't want to break anything. The other bearings had the very small amount of grease that Kaw is known for on these bikes. This time it wasn't spinning at all so I put some muscle and tools to it to get it apart. Should have tried harder the first time!

I'm greasing it with the red Polaris snowmobile product that is supposed to be very water resistant.

 

IDRIDR, those are called "Full Compliment" bearings they hold up better to high stress than a caged bearing. The little nipples hold the rollers in the sleeve. You get more rollers than the caged ones have. I used a 9/16 socket to push the old sleeve out and the new one back in. I have a press but have done it with a vice also.

I made this on my lathe to force grease in to the bearings.

 

Thanks turnsleft for the education. I have a press and vice available, but no lathe. Did you make one of those for each bearing size?

 

IDRIDR, I made that one for my Montesa trials bike. Will make one for the KLX
when the need too.

Your welcome

 

Great idea TL, hey check out this link. I think you have a candidate to submit.

HomemadeTools.net -- Thousands of Homemade Tools

 

Same thing happened to my KLR.







Always good to keep an eye on everything. Make sure you have a look at the chain guide up by the countershaft sprocket, When i greased my swingarm bearings on the KLX the chain guide was worn all the way through and the chain was starting to wear the swing arm.

 

This one with a new green slider? The old one probably has another year or two left on it, but I picked up this from Hot Foot Moto a while ago and put it on when greasing the bearings.

 

Yep, thats the one. Mine was worn through. It was the easiest time to replace it when you have the swingarm off already.